Flavored Cigarettes Banned As Of Today

New rules about tobacco marketing that targets young people go into effect this week as part of the Family Smoking Prevention and Control Act. Among the rules: No candy- or fruit-flavored cigarettes.

We understand the logic behind banning candy-flavored cigarettes, but we have to admit that having had “candy cigarettes” as a child, we’re convinced that the real scam is candy companies taking advantage of the popularity of cigarettes to pass off chalk as candy.

You mean you COULD.. I did, in fact, order several cartons straight from Indonesia myself, and received them with no problems..

But since they passed the *latest* law that prohibits the US Post Office from mailing any type of cigarette product that goes into effect next week, I have a sneaky hunch that we’ll no longer be able to order any type of cigarette, even from overseas, and have it delivered.

I always preferred the bubblegum cigarettes that came in paper wrappers with a think layer of powdered sugar between the gum and the paper, so you could “puff” them and produce a little cloud of dust. Brilliant candymaking concept, that.

To have a legal product and completely restrict is sales and marketing and usage (black text only, no music, only consumed outdoors, 15 feet from a building entrance) is preposterous. If the product is so inherently dangerous (well documented) why do we permit its sale?

This is BS. Either have the balls to ban the product, or stop the cheap grandstanding to earn political points.

And despite all this legislation cigarettes and tobacco products still do not contain a list of ingredients, a far more basic regulation. Why is that?

Are you also suggesting the government should also roll back legal restrictions on alcohol consumption, such as limits on alcohol consumption before driving and driving while drinking?

They have the balls to ban the product, but they don’t have the support. The tobacco industry spends more than $100,000 in lobbying efforts each day the legislature meets. Big Tobacco is a beast and the government is doing what it can to chip away at their influence.

Well, there’s also that little thing about being morally wrong to tell adults what they should and should not put into their bodies. Hands off my body and all that you know.

And trying to connect this to laws prohibiting DUI is disengenious. DUI laws are to punish those who demostrate gross negligence and thus endangering the public by operating a vehicle while impaired, not to protect the drinker from his own actions. Joe Sixpack can smoke as much as he wants and it does not put me in any danger whatsoever.

You seem like you’re all aboard for bans that cover “things people want that are dangerous.” Well lets get going with salty fatty food, sky diving, bungee jumping, motorcycles, cars that go over 10mph, unprotected sex and a whole host of other activities that will get you killed….

Approximately 40,000 people die every year from tobacco related issues… yet those people don’t smoke or use tobacco. Tobacco doesn’t just affect you, it also has harmful effects on all those around you. It’s less harmful to directly inhale the exhaust from your tailpipe than it is to inhale the smoke coming off the end of a cigarette.

Clearly, this causes negative effects on more than just the user… and that’s without considering the economic healthcare impacts.

Please tell me you aren’t serious. You’re comparing harmless candy to alcohol consumption. Its not a one size fits all thing. Plus the fact that the law only restricts alcohol consumption with regards to driving (because, you know, it harms people), not in general. Candy cigs, by any stretch of the imagination, do not increase a kid’s desire to smoke actual cigs (or there would be a hell of a lot more smokers than there are today). You act like they’re purposefully selling kids actual cigs masqueraded in a candy box. Please.

‘Tis true. Legal drinking age of 21 (some exceptions), no purchases on Sunday or before Noon on Sundays (in some municipalities), no vending machines, no consumption in public (many municipalities), no substituting for baby food, etc. List goes on and on.

I’m willing to bet at least one state also restricts the types of stores that sell it. There’s a province in Canada where you can only buy take-home liquor and wine from shops the government owns (serious!) unless it is wine in which case if you only exist in this province, you may sell your wine direct to the consumer. And you can buy beer from one of those stores (except the wine places, which cannot sell liquor or beer, although I hear the beer restriction is lifted now, with the same restrictions as wine sellers), or one other choice: “The Beer Store”, which is the supposed competition to “The Liquor Store”, now just the LCBO.

I’ve come to realize that you don’t actually read anything. Read the post I was replying to. He made comments on the regulation of smoking. I responded to those comments. I didn’t compare candy tobacco to alcohol; rather, I compared tobacco legislation to alcohol legislation.

I saw candy cigarettes a while back without the red dot on one end being marketed as “candy sticks,” which, perversely, is a less appealing name than “cigarettes.” Are these neutered versions also banned?

Umm. Are you sure about this? You didn’t link to anything, and I can’t find any other source to back this up. I can find that adding tobacco to candy is now illegal, as is candy- and fruit-flavored cigarettes.

But a ban on candy cigarettes? I’m going to have to call shenanigans. Evens the Consumerist post you linked to doesn’t say that candy cigarettes will be banned.

Thanks for posting the link again, but I read it both times, and I’m with TCama on this one. I’ve seen indications that candy-flavored ciggarettes are now illegal, but nothing about candy cigarettes, which was the thrust of Meg’s post.

In case you don’t catch the distinction:
candy-flavored cigarettes are cigarettes, with candy (or flavoring) added to them
candy cigarettes are candy that look like cigarettes

I thought they banned flavored cigarettes last year?
Hence why my Djarum cloves (yeah, kids LOVE that flavor and I’m sure they could afford them, too /sarcasm) have been discontinued and now replaced with a less flavorful “cigar cigarette”.

What surprised me is that all the stores still carry flavored (grape, apple) papers/cigars.

The whole thing is pretty much bullshit. All these nanny laws are ridiculous and hardly make sense.

It was yesterday, and even the Consumerist article you linked to says “Here are the […] rules that are scheduled to go into effect on June 22.”

I don’t know if many major retailers sell flavored (excl. menthol) cigarettes though. And the major distributors don’t make any. In fact, the biggest thing the FSPTCA does that consumers will notice instantly is the fact that no promotional materials may use words like “Light,” “Mild,” “Medium,” “Smooth,” etc. New cigarette labels aren’t allowed to use these words either, but stores don’t have to destroy the ones that do, so if you see a store selling Marlboro Lights (as opposed to a Marlboro [Gold Pack]), for example, it simply means they aren’t done cycling through their old inventory yet.

I appreciate the article being renamed, but I don’t even think this post is correct about new rules going into effect today. I’ve found the date June 22, 2009 but I’ve read nothing about June, 22 2010 anywhere else.

Hmm. I was not allowed to purchase these candy cigarettes as a child because I was told that next, I would want the real things. Anyway, I seem to recall there were some versions that you could blow out a powder that simulated smoke? I could be totally incorrect, as my memory is very foggy with these things. I was the child that was always given the wax lips. I stopped eating those too when I found out the hard way that you weren’t supposed to swallow the wax…

Awww, I remember eating these growing up! I loved the gum variety that when you blew on them let out a small chalky cloud. When I was in middle school a friend and I used to puff on them as we rode our bikes. We got a lot of stares.

Man – this place is getting like Slashdot… never mind reading the article – it’s more fun to talk about it without any particular knowledge!

Yes – there is a federal ban on flavored cigarettes other than menthol. The legislation was supported by big tobacco so that they could look like the good guys while actually getting rid of their competition from Indonesia.

A time relevant article would be this one:http://in.reuters.com/article/idINIndia-49542320100622 which starts, “The United States rejected on Tuesday [June 22, 2010] a call by Indonesia for a World Trade Organization panel to rule on their dispute over the U.S. ban on clove-flavoured cigarettes.”

Can’t we just go back to traditional family values like beating your wife and children? Or selling the kids to work houses. Leaving them on church doorsteps? Using your daughters as poker chips? You know, the good old days.

“Family Smoking Prevention and Control Act”

Fuck off and let people be stupid. Tobacco smells like ass and tastes horrible even through other people’s kisses whether or not you throw in some skittles. Kids learn this crap from their parents and peers, not because it comes in strawberry.

I quit smoking several years ago so I have no dog in this hunt but I gotta say that this is simply ridiculous. Only an adult can legally purchase cigarettes, therefore it is an adult choice to have flavored cigarettes. So whats next. All the neat bottles and flavors of liquor are going to be banned because they might make kids want them??

This is just the stupidest ban ever. Kids don’t start smoking “flavoured cigarettes” – unless you count the ultimate “gateway cigarette”, menthol-flavoured. Interestingly, menthol was not included in the ban.
More government stupidity.

â€¦a cigarette or any of its component parts (including the tobacco, filter, or paper) shall not contain, as a constituent (including a smoke constituent) or additive, an artificial or natural flavor (other than tobacco or menthol) or an herb or spice, including strawberry, grape, orange, clove, cinnamon, pineapple, vanilla, coconut, licorice, cocoa, chocolate, cherry, or coffee, that is a characterizing flavor of the tobacco product or tobacco smoke

Crafty Crafty lawmakers….They managed to pass a law for the anti-smoking crowd…that benefits the big tobacco companies…these fruit flavored tobaccos were becoming a very popular treat with the Black American Communities….causing a dip in sales of Menthol ciggarettes which have somehow not been included with

All of these rules go too far. When are they going to ban the word smoking from the dictionary? Funny they see no problem with non alcoholic beer, and other children facade products. God save us from the people who know how we should live.